Rally for Democracy and Social Progress


The Rally for Democracy and Social Progress is a political party in the Republic of the Congo, founded by Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya.

History

Thystère Tchicaya founded the RDPS on 29 October 1990, after splitting from another opposition group, the National Union for Democracy and Progress. The RDPS won nine seats in the June–July 1992 parliamentary election.
Initially part of the National Alliance for Democracy, a coalition of left-wing parties that supported Pascal Lissouba, the RDPS soon broke with the AND and joined the Union for Democratic Renewal opposition coalition, led by Bernard Kolélas. Together with the Union for the Republic and the Movement for Democracy and Salvation, the RDPS formed an alliance, the Movement for Unity and Reconstruction, in November 1996. A few days after rebels loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso captured Brazzaville, the capital, at the end of the civil war in October 1997, Tchicaya announced the support of the RDPS for Sassou Nguesso.
In the parliamentary election held on 24 June and 5 August 2007, the party won two out of 137 seats.
RDPS President Thystère Tchicaya died on 20 June 2008. Bernard Batchi succeeded him as Interim President of the RDPS. Later, the party was led by Thystère Tchicaya's son, Jean-Marc Thystère Tchicaya. In January 2016, it pledged its support for Denis Sassou Nguesso in the March 2016 presidential election.